Heavyweights Australia eye return to the summit

In a nutshell:

The term 'new era' gets thrown around rather loosely in the world of sport, but it might be the perfect way for once to describe where this Australian white-ball team sits currently. Without a world title to defend for the first time in nearly a decade, the formerly all-conquering Aussies go into this tournament with a different kind of pressure to what they're otherwise used to.

They need to get their hands on some silverware again. It's also an ode to just how indomitable they were for so long as a T20 team, where they won three world titles on the trot, that even a two-year gap feels like an eternity for this incredible team. They still largely maintain a core of the players who made them the yardstick of women's white-ball cricket but there's still a fresh feel courtesy a new captain at the helm in the form of Sophie Molineux post the retirement of Alyssa Healy.

On paper, Australia should still start favourites even if some of the other teams have caught up with them. And they'll look at their challenging group, which includes India and South Africa, as just the extra motivation they need to remind the rest of the field of why they might still be the team to beat.

Squad:Sophie Molineux (c), Ash Gardner (vc), Tahlia McGrath (vc), Kim Garth, Nicola Carey, Grace Harris, Lucy Hamilton, Phoebe Litchfield, Alana King, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Beth Mooney, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham

Best XI:Georgia Voll, Beth Mooney (wk), Phoebe Litchfield, Ellyse Perry, Annabel Sutherland, Tahlia McGrath, Ash Gardner, Sophie Molineux (c), Alana King/Georgia Wareham, Megan Schutt, Kim Garth

Players to keep an eye on:

Annabel Sutherland:Quite easily the most complete women's cricketer in the world, but she's yet to take the T20 format by storm, and the stage is more than set for her to do so this month.

Georgia Voll: Australia's strength at their peak as a team was a dominant opening partnership, and Voll has taken her opportunity to get a full-time role at the top of the order with glee. She's in fact powered her way to the top of the T20 batting rankings.

What's in the news:Sophie Molineux seems to have finally overcome her back injury just in time to offer her complete services with bat and with ball as she leads Australia in a World Cup for the first time. She returned to bowling this past week and sent down six overs in her team's first two warmup matches.

Where they finished in 2024:Went down to a clinical South African team in the semifinal

How have they performed since then:Australia have won 10 out of their 12 games since that World Cup semifinal knockout. But they did lose a T20 series to India on home soil in the multiformat series earlier this year.

The big game:Their final league game against India on June 28, considering the battles the two teams have had in World Cups across formats of late, and could well end up as a decider as to which of the two progress into the knockouts.

A record in sight:Megan Schutt is two wickets away from becoming the first bowler to 50 scalps in Women's T20 World Cups. Molineux (45 wickets) and Sutherland (44) have their eyes set on 50 T20I wickets.

Realistic expectation:To win their seventh T20 World Cup and to regain their status quo as the best in the world.

League stage schedule: